Damn these Gallenteans and their giant walls of text.

Someone needs to confiscate their keyboards.

I can't fathom reversing the awesome that is the new matchmaking. It's provided the most balanced matches in years. No longer does seeing a Fatal Absolution squad on the other team mean I might as well leave match, because it's going to be a stomp.

If you are a really high Mu squad, and hence get matchmade with some newbies, and hence, have an actual "tough fight" instead of an easy stomp, that is a good thing. You should never go into a match assured of victory. If you want a game mode that is doing less to make for even matches, try FacWar. :D

I can't fathom reversing the awesome that is the new matchmaking. It's provided the most balanced matches in years. No longer does seeing a Fatal Absolution squad on the other team mean I might as well leave match, because it's going to be a stomp.

If you are a really high Mu squad, and hence get matchmade with some newbies, and hence, have an actual "tough fight" instead of an easy stomp, that is a good thing. You should never go into a match assured of victory. If you want a game mode that is doing less to make for even matches, try FacWar. :D

Damn these Gallenteans and their giant walls of text.

Someone needs to confiscate their keyboards.

Developers, GMs, thank you for your time if you managed to read through this, the purpose of this wasn't just a rant but a concern from a very loyal customer who believes greatly in your product. In the age of Lobby Shooters, low skill requirements and constant DLCs that have more content than the game itself, this FPS is a humongous breath of fresh air compared to the generic trash FPS shooters out there. I just don't want it to fail....well Legion to fail I guess because DUST is on it's way out but I digress! Thank you guys.

You're foolish if you wish to assume that I want a pubstomp simply because of my tag. And you're on the CPM? get out of here.
My problem is that when squading with my teammates it results in our team being the only one to push objectives while everybody else runs and hides. You seriously find this acceptable? Or are your past biases getting in the way here since you wish to bring up my corp?

My point isn't to insult your corp, if anything it's a complement. My point is, that if an FA squad is on one side, you can expect the other side to have more of the better players of the remaining 26 people in the room, because it's needed to compensate for your team's abilities. If you guys are the best in the room, you are going to have to carry your team. Because your Mu score says you can.

Then why am I running into a squad of fatal absolution and a squad of molon labe on one side and not a single squad on the other? The Mu system is pitifully easy to fool, all I need do is afk to lower it then stomp face.

...The Mu system is pitifully easy to fool, all I need do is afk to lower it then stomp face.

The nerfs and buffs in this game arent just about "balancing" even though thats the only reason CCP will give anyone for nerfing and buffing weapons the way they do. They actually have an agenda (which i cant really blame them) See they sell weapons and gear in the market for Aurum and when a certain weapon isnt getting much use but they want to make money off of it they buff the weapon in such a way as to make it more powerful sothat more and more people will want to use it.

8) V/AV, this is a longer standing issue. Let's just work together to make it fun for everyone.

]

You need to get people or at least motivate them to spec into their own vehicles as I always say nothing kills a tank better then a tank or a drop ship. One guy should not force me off a point immediately after I get their just because he is shooting down on me with a bunch of SP just so I can run away. No one tanks or even dropships anymore so if a respect to occur im sure allot of people would be happy to put their SP into proto stomping weapons like everyone else just letting you know.

Thank you for the feedback and since most of your points were non-ranty and written with good intentions, I can address most of them. That is not to say I agree with them, but I will explain why.

1) Statistics - You claim that we are just using usage data to warrant the change to the bolt pistol and I really don't like when people claim something without data to back it up. I have explained before that we use multiple methods, including Kills per Spawn per Weapon (per dropsuit), basically K/D per weapon. Where is your statement coming from, where are the facts? The CPM could tell you that we worked together on a detailed spreadsheet with all the sidearms, Zatara took lead on this one as the others had taken leads on different aspects of Delta. Together we collected community feedback, data and the CPM experience to rank all the sidearms into categories of needs buff/nerf, methods to do so and reasoning.

2) The final method of balancing the sidearms was also very clear, we established the weapon everyone knew, the SMG as the cornerstone of sidearms and created a range vs dps, and comparable dmg/clip and clips/ammo ratios based completely around the SMG. We did not nerf it even though it was the most used weapon, but based the whole strategy around getting all the sidearms to a similar efficiency, meaning most got buffed (a lot) and a few got nerfed slightly. By changing these efficiencies, we may later see that the usage goes up, but usage is only an indicator of UP/OP.

3) Just the fact that we immediately tweaked Hotfix Delta with a balancing hotfix a week later, should speak for itself. Our data showed that the BP was OP, so we reduced ROF and if that isn't enough, we will keep working on it.

4) Please send me data on broken Teambuilding to [email protected]. I have yet to see a concrete example of unwarranted 2 stacked squads on one side and newberries on the other, and my inbox is full of screenshots from players. Yes, stomps happen, but they happen everywhere, even in the EPL, NBA and the NFL. When a 6 man squad from the best PC corp hits its stride, very few aside from a similar squad will stand a chance. Other than that, I don't get your point about Teambuilding, are you against having more even teams or? You can go play FW if you want to to try your luck, that feature doesn't use the new Teambuilder.

5) To whomever said it, good luck on manipulating the Mu and have lots of fun AFKing to do so. To me, even contemplating it is unfathomable.

6) New Player experience, in the four hotfixes we haven't ben able to change the "early mission system", but we have granted better starter fits, created tons of militia weapons," assisted" with skill selection (in fact gave 3 times more ISK than before through Skillbooks), and made the Academy a more "fun" place, so extending it (twice, from 2400 to 5000 in Delta) has been sown slowly and purposefully. Retention has never been higher than it is now. Consistently getting a 1000 WP per battle, means you completely get the game, fitting and progression.

7) Assault Rifles, again, are you referencing old ways, we can't change that, only how we work now. I think the 3 Tuning Rifles threads demonstrate that we are doing things differently. Again, the claim that we are using usage data or forum QQ to balance which is plainly not true.

8) V/AV, this is a longer standing issue. Let's just work together to make it fun for everyone.

On your final assessment, I cannot agree with you more. DUST 514 is my favorite game and it keeps getting better.

Thanks again for the feedback!

This is complete and utter bull. Period.

Please pick up your complimentary tin foil hat from CEOPyrex. He has many.

Actually its not bull and it isnt a conspiracy its just simple business. And if i ran a game I would do the same thing they are doing. I dont blame them but it is sad to see thats how the gaming industry has moved since the days of mario and zelda. You can kiss the butts of every CCP employee all you want it wont change the fact that this is how gaming industry is in this day and age. And most people like yourself want to believe that the gaming companies actually want more than money but money is really the only thing that drives a game company anymore. Believe me if there wasnt money in gaming there would be no games. So yeah call it bullshit or a conspiracy all you want its simple business tactics and thats just how they do things. They also wont ever admit to it because of the bad PR they would gain. And CCP has enough bad PR circling the gaming community as it is to want to collect anymore.

Yeah, your level of tin foil is really up there. Money has nothing to do with the balance changes, except perhaps that a better game generally makes more money.

Thank you for the feedback and since most of your points were non-ranty and written with good intentions, I can address most of them. That is not to say I agree with them, but I will explain why.

1) Statistics - You claim that we are just using usage data to warrant the change to the bolt pistol and I really don't like when people claim something without data to back it up. I have explained before that we use multiple methods, including Kills per Spawn per Weapon (per dropsuit), basically K/D per weapon. Where is your statement coming from, where are the facts? The CPM could tell you that we worked together on a detailed spreadsheet with all the sidearms, Zatara took lead on this one as the others had taken leads on different aspects of Delta. Together we collected community feedback, data and the CPM experience to rank all the sidearms into categories of needs buff/nerf, methods to do so and reasoning.

2) The final method of balancing the sidearms was also very clear, we established the weapon everyone knew, the SMG as the cornerstone of sidearms and created a range vs dps, and comparable dmg/clip and clips/ammo ratios based completely around the SMG. We did not nerf it even though it was the most used weapon, but based the whole strategy around getting all the sidearms to a similar efficiency, meaning most got buffed (a lot) and a few got nerfed slightly. By changing these efficiencies, we may later see that the usage goes up, but usage is only an indicator of UP/OP.

3) Just the fact that we immediately tweaked Hotfix Delta with a balancing hotfix a week later, should speak for itself. Our data showed that the BP was OP, so we reduced ROF and if that isn't enough, we will keep working on it.

4) Please send me data on broken Teambuilding to [email protected]. I have yet to see a concrete example of unwarranted 2 stacked squads on one side and newberries on the other, and my inbox is full of screenshots from players. Yes, stomps happen, but they happen everywhere, even in the EPL, NBA and the NFL. When a 6 man squad from the best PC corp hits its stride, very few aside from a similar squad will stand a chance. Other than that, I don't get your point about Teambuilding, are you against having more even teams or? You can go play FW if you want to to try your luck, that feature doesn't use the new Teambuilder.

5) To whomever said it, good luck on manipulating the Mu and have lots of fun AFKing to do so. To me, even contemplating it is unfathomable.

6) New Player experience, in the four hotfixes we haven't ben able to change the "early mission system", but we have granted better starter fits, created tons of militia weapons," assisted" with skill selection (in fact gave 3 times more ISK than before through Skillbooks), and made the Academy a more "fun" place, so extending it (twice, from 2400 to 5000 in Delta) has been done slowly and purposefully. Retention has never been higher than it is now. Consistently getting a 1000 WP per battle, means you completely get the game, fitting and progression.

7) Assault Rifles, again, are you referencing old ways, we can't change that, only how we work now. I think the 3 Tuning Rifles threads demonstrate that we are doing things differently. Again, the claim that we are using usage data or forum QQ to balance which is plainly not true.

8) V/AV, this is a longer standing issue. Let's just work together to make it fun for everyone.

On your final assessment, I cannot agree with you more. DUST 514 is my favorite game and it keeps getting better.

Thanks again for the feedback!